Chapter 2148: Path Upwards

As they got closer, they realized that the plants themselves grew larger than they thought. The average height of these thorns were more than three meters, which was taller than the average ceiling height.

One could imagine going inside this cluster of black thorny plants, surrounded on all sides.

Even if one was strong enough, it couldn’t be comfortable psychologically.

Further, for some reason, they could feel that this tens-of-miles-long thorny forest was only part of the challenge.

Althea went to the periphery and checked how she would handle them. Raising her arm and using her wood elements, the branches reacted but not too much.

Garan even instantaneously created an ice wall to shield her from a few thorns coming from two different plants adjacent to each other.

Looking at the thorns that had made some relatively deep scratches on his wall, Garan looked at her in concern. "Are they not wild roots?"

Monster roots might cause his ice wall—which had fairly good defense abilities—this type of damage, but not wild roots, at least not in a single slap.

"They are closer to aberrant roots than wild roots," Althea said, a solemn expression gracing her pretty face. "But, either way, they don’t quite listen to me."

There were three types of higher-level plants: the aberrant roots, the wild roots, and the monster roots. The aberrant roots were most common among the three, and they did not have sentience in them. They are rooted plants that react by instinct because they did not actively hunt for prey like wild roots did.

At the same time, even if they did not actively move to find food, they would immediately react to stimulation that touched them. It so happened that these large thorned shrubs’ reaction was to slap people with their sharp thorns.

Aberrant Roots were supposedly the easiest to control amongst the three, too, because they were essentially just normal plants with reaction mechanisms. However, for these thorns, it didn’t work like that, making Althea the wood user a bit confused.

For the next trial, she used her wood element again, and immediately used the [Eye] after sending it. She watched as the controlled green particles touched the various thorns, quickly absorbed by them.

However, this was applicable for a fraction of the energy. The rest...were attracted by the ground itself, as if it were sucking it up.

Garan threw in a metal spike and an ice spike as well. Like Althea’s, both spikes lost momentum midflight early and fell down to the ground, soon disappearing into the soil.

Both Garan and Althea looked a bit anxious with this discovery. What did this mean?

They tested things a few more times, in different ways, gathering as much information as they could before venturing in.

For one, Garan confirmed that they could enter this forest without being absorbed or anything, though he guarded his body well with ice. To maximize his mana, they tested out a lot of theories.

Althea studied the movements of aether around her husband, confirming that the land wasn’t a vampire or anything. What they feared was that entering would get their life absorbed or something.

Further, the whole element being absorbed wasn’t actually permanent. It was more like an increased ’gravity’ in this area. If they added more force on the element, then it wouldn’t get absorbed. It was far more difficult to control their elements, though. The innate damage was also reduced because of this.

As for the thorns, Althea had cut off a protruding sample to check. Its composition was similar to rose thorns, but with massive branches and sharper thorns and the lack of beautiful flowers.

It was also poisonous. She studied as much as she could to prepare, making antidotes as well.

A small amount of poison wasn’t too deadly for people past level 20. Even for weaker ones, it worked more like a paralyzing agent than something innately lethal. However, getting injected all over the body with it and fainting in the middle of nowhere was pretty much a death sentence anyway.

Similarly, for strong people, getting injected multiple times would also be damaging. Considering that the forest seemed endless, it was pretty much guaranteed that this would happen.

If one wanted to go through tens of kilometers of this, then one would definitely be subject to a lot of poison. In which case, even a level 30 might not come out alive.

While Garan tested various limits at the edge, Althea experimented on the poison. It took Althea a full day to formulate antidotes.

This was because she found out that the effect of the poison was compounding—that is to say, the more poison gets injected into your system, the more it would affect. It was the kind that was 1+1 = 3, and 1+1+1 is equal to five.

To summarize, just...don’t get pricked.

Another thing to note was that both of the monster plants refused to enter, taking root at the periphery. When Garan was testing his limits at the edge, she had ordered Sol to pull him out as needed.

To her surprise, the Sunflower refused. It didn’t even dare sneak in the tip of its tail-like stalk.

She gave them a look. She took them with her to accompany them on their trip. They had really expedited their trip a lot and had protected them many times.

"Really not going?" she asked, pointing at the seemingly endless thorny forest in front of them. The sunflower’s roots remained firm, while the mushroom disappeared underground.

"Fine," she said. "We’ll meet each other again if fate allows."

She did not ask them to wait because she did not know whether they could return to this exact spot. There were too many unknowns.

The sunflower seemed to have sensed her farewell and wilted. She smiled and wrapped her arm with that unique wood energy that it seemed to like, and it became a bit more vibrant. Similarly, the mushroom popped out to gently bump her feet. She kindly gave it a bit of sustenance as well.

Seeing them like this softened her heart. It meant that they did not refuse to come over because they didn’t like them anymore. They refused to move forward because they truly couldn’t. How could she blame them?

While a little sad, this is also an important clue. Any anomaly could be a clue at this point, and land that an apex plant couldn’t step into must have its secrets.

Because they were going in with minimal information, they equipped themselves with as many protections as they could. For example, they each wore at least three protective charms outside the body, with Althea carving several more to place in their respective spaces as backup.

The protection charm was very, very good. Judging by the default damage of the plants, most of the attacks should reach the threshold of damage that would activate the pendant, so in the case where their outer equipment gave way, there was a layer of protective tool to dissipate the damage.

They wore thick defense equipment that covered everything to minimize the prickling of the thorns.

Other than their thick leather attire (which was really uncomfortable at noon), Garan created sharp ice that went around them like a barrier, but they couldn’t go quickly because they were sturdier than they looked, not to mention that if an area was cut, more would just grow towards them.

Garan did not dare tap into all his potential now that he had yet to control it, and so did Althea. Whenever Garan was feeling tired, Althea would create an enclosed igloo made of soil, and then wrap the interiors with waterproof fabric so plants couldn’t go through easily. Rather, if they did not sense them, they would be left alone.

Anyway, they were aberrant plants. They would not go out of their way to hunt for them. They really just had to defend themselves well from the initial attacks, moving forward and leaving them as they passed by.

They moved forward, deeper and deeper, hearts hanging in tension as they moved step by step.

Slap!

Prick!

Stab!

Every step of the way, there were those iron-like thorns slapping them. Who would feel relaxed?

Along the way, they saw a few orc skeletons. Some seemed to be heading back when they died, while some just fell in place. They were likely from different groups, judging by the state of the skeletons. Maybe some deaths were even a hundred years apart.

The next hour, they found at least a dozen. This was just on the path they took. There were likely more elsewhere.

This was probably because of the legend of orcs gaining strength here. This attracted many, many orcs over the years.

However, while some succeeded, many were probably paralyzed to death. Those thorns were no joke, and they had a passive penetration effect that could damage even the sturdy orcs’ skin.

The question was, if true, did it only work on orcs?

Or would it work on humans, too?